Safe bacteria designed to help the honeybee suppress pathogens
Establish beneficial microflora
Helps increase bee colony health
May help inhibit chalkbrood (Ascophera apis)
Quick and easy to use
Sold in a heat sealed - moisture proof...

It appears to be a natural organic method. It not on our local treatment list I’m using … We have mechanical treatment like sugar dusting, Queen selection, SBB, Drone foundation, etc … Non-systemic like Mite Strips n oxide-acid vapor or drip, etc n system with several products in that group.

. I’ve used several organic means this summer to experiment … And hopefully hold the mite ratio down. My mite counts are slowly ramping up as summer draws to the end. At the end of August I will use the Mite Away Strips then retest in mid to end of September. If the count reramps I’ll do a double oxide-vapor because our temps will be too low for other non-systemic/organic treatments.

That’s my plan up here this late summer. Here’s my mite counts per 100,200 or 300 bees per mites.

I haven’t, but as an IBS sufferer, I have a barely repressed hatred of probiotics. All they have done for me is make things worse, or made no difference. I have taken many different types under medical supervision, none of them helped, and I think some of them made things worse. Of course, I am a problem child in many ways, so that doesn’t mean they don’t work.

I wouldn’t try to upset the balance of nature, you may end up regretting it. Or I might end up regretting that you did!

Oh John … On that graph … My hives are the the last five on the right side of that local research graph. My three over the dark black line are 2 @ 4 per 100 bees n 1 @ 5 per 100 bees. And two of my hives are less than 3 mites per 100 bees .,

The scientists have just begun to scratch the surface of what is living in the gut of the bee and what effects those bacteria have on the health of the colony. Messing with the microbes is already the problem. Messing with them more seems like a bad idea to me…

“Knock on wood” I have not seen any varroa mites in either of my hives yet.

How did you look for them? If you were just looking at bees, you probably wouldn’t see any. If you put a sticky board in the hive, you might see a few. The only way to be sure of the mite load is by doing a sugar roll (upsets bees, but most of them live) or alcohol wash (kills bees, but very accurate).